Local theater.

N.u. Show May Provide Peek At Future Entertainers

January 13, 1995|By H. Lee Murphy.

Training ground for the likes of Tony Randall, Ann-Margret and Warren Beatty, Northwestern University boasts one of the nation's most revered theater programs. Within the Evanston school's beehive of activity-an amazing 65 plays or so are produced on campus each year-no event is more venerated than the annual Dolphin Show.

The Dolphin, a fixture at Northwestern since before World War II, is created entirely by undergraduate students without the help of faculty. Bolstered by a generous budget, its dramatic standards are so uniformly high from one year to the next that it has attracted an impressive following of loyal subscribers from even the farthest reaches of the North Shore. Even the volunteer ushers keep coming back for each new show.

The 53rd edition of the Dolphin (a couple of years were missed during the war) is the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim musical "Gypsy," the frequently revived retelling of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee's early stage career. It runs in eight performances from Jan. 20 through 28 on campus at Cahn Auditorium, situated at Sheridan Road and Emerson Street. Tickets are available by calling 708-491-7282.

"Gypsy" is a big deal even on a campus noted for great works. With a budget of $45,000, a cast of 34 and some 60 more volunteers working behind the scenes, the show doesn't lack resources. Cahn, which is hosting some shows produced by the uprooted Northlight Theatre, has a new stage and updated sound and lights.

Actually, Dolphin began its life as a very different kind of entertainment. The men's swim team, casting about in late 1939 for the means to finance a trip to a swim meet in Florida, seized on the idea of a sort of men's water ballet in the natatorium in Patten Gymnasium. It was such a hit that it became an annual fixture; its appeal grew even broader after the women's swim team signed on as a co-presenter in 1949.

Dolphin came out of the water in 1970 (the old swim pool is now a weight room), and the theater department began a new tradition of big-cast musicals. Only the best and the brightest of Northwestern's expansive program-the school has more than 350 theater majors currently-are anointed for Dolphin.

Among the illustrious alumni: Jeff Calhoun, now directing "Grease" on Broadway with Brooke Shields, was in the 1979 show; Dale Reiling, later the music director of "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon" in New York, produced the 1982 edition.

"It's very competitive to get accepted into Dolphin," says John Henry Pearce, the co-producer of "Gypsy" along with Kristi Frazer, both of whom are juniors. "I feel like I'm working alongside the top designers and actors and directors of the future. It's very exciting."

Also laborious. The auditions for Dolphin are held in September practically as soon as students arrive for the new school year, and rehearsals have been ongoing since October. "With three months of rehearsals, it's a challenge to keep this group motivated," says Pearce.

The director here is Diana Basmajian, overseeing a cast headed by Kristen Frelich, Michele Graff and Michael Campione. The music director is Erin Freeman, while Lauren Pollack is the choreographer.

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